Travel Approval!

I just got the call from our caseworker! We have travel approval! We are just waiting on the consulate to set an appointment. At that point, we'll arrange our travel. It's looking like we'll be leaving on May 2 and returning on May 16. YAY! My dad should be able to go; my mom can probably watch the kids the first week (while Mike's parents return from their vacation); and Mike's parents should be able to watch the kids for the second week. I think it's all falling in line... God certainly has a hand in all of this... it's obvious!

Wow! One more month. In about 35 days, we'll meet our little girl!

Still No Travel Dates Set

We're all still awaiting the final dates. So, it's still tough trying to plan out our spring schedules. I went to our Brownie leader meeting this week and felt so bad in that I can't really commit to much the rest of this year, not knowing when I'll be in town and when I won't. I've never in my life been camping (and really have no desire to do so!), but our troop is planning a backyard camping trip in May. The girls will have a blast, I'm sure... but I'm not even sure I'll be there to learn about camping too! Thank goodness for the three assistant leaders who are jumping right in and taking over. Whew!

In the meantime, though, I'm keeping busy with "getting ready". We've now gotten a few prescription medicines for Gracelynn ("just in case") and most of our own. I've ordered a bunch of travel things online, too (neck pillows, travel blanket, China guide, Chinese phrase guide, etc.). We're slowly getting there.

Today as I was surfing the web for neat China-adoption facts, I found this beautiful nursery song "Mama Hao". It's sung by most moms/nannies/caretakers to Chinese children. I put a link to the song at the bottom of the main Blog page. Just scroll to the bottom and click the big arrow to play. Very relaxing. Maybe this will be a good thing to play when Grace's "I'm not understanding these non-Chinese people" frustration sets in?

Green Cards, Sore arms, and Quilt photos

We went on Thursday to get our fingerprints retaken.  We arrived at 8am.  USCIS doesn't mess around... not even a smile till after our paperwork was completed and we were in the waiting area to get called for fingerprints.  The one lady said, "Please take a seat" and pointed to the sitting area.  No one was sitting there (and we were about 25th in line).  Everyone was sitting in an area beyond the glass wall, so... Mike and I followed suit and went to the other side.  We sat waiting, and then we noticed that the number display (to tell you who was next) was on the other side.  Just as we were getting up to move, they showed Mike's number.  Someone took him, and then another lady quickly came over and got me.  Turns out we had been sitting in the Green Cards area.  Ha ha... they probably had quite a joke about the silly Americans.  

Friday morning was vaccination day.  Ugh.  We saw an Infectious Diseases doctor who talked to us about the risks and his suggestions.  We wound up with Hepatitis A and DTP vaccine shots.  We opted to get the Typhoid vaccine as well, as a precaution, but it was in pill form.  I'm 1/4 of the way finished with it.  I hadn't had a real shot in years.  The shots themselves weren't bad... though man, did I feel that Hep A fluid going in!  Today, though... ow, ow, ow.  I can't allow anything to bump my arm.  But at least the pain in the arm is distracting me from the millions of other pains I keep coming up with each day.  Mike is doing much better.  He even slept on that arm... I have no idea how he did that.  My dad had his shots a few days ago.  His arm is still sore, too.  

Today I received a few great photos of the quilt-in-process.  The ladies from Roanoke are working busily on Gracelynn's Bai Jai Bei (100 Good Wishes Quilt).  It's looking fabulous.  Less than half of the squares are shown, but it was so neat seeing them pieced together and laid out similar to the finished quilt.  I'm on the Mac right now, and to be honest, I haven't quite figured it out yet.  So, when I figure out how to transfer a photo to the blog, I will.  

Hopefully the next time I post, we'll have a Travel Approval.  :)

Fingerprinting Time

Tomorrow we get our fingerprints re-taken. They don't expire till the end of April, but seeing as though we'll travel early May, we need them re-taken. Our appointment is at 8am in the morning... we're actually leaving the house around 6am to make sure we get there in time (since Mike has to then go on to work). We'll get a new I-171H once the fingerprints are processed... next month?

Things are really swimming around in my mind. I feel like I can't concentrate on any one thing these days. Between Spring Break and playing with the kids, medical issues with me (say a little prayer that we figure me out soon), packing for China, getting the house ready for grandparents to watch the other three kids, finishing paperwork, and preparing for Gracelynn's arrival here... I can't focus on anything.

Of the entire year, our trip I believe will be occurring during the most inconvenient month. Mike's parents could possibly be on vacation when we leave, my mom may have trouble getting much time off of work (since she's already gone for her Alaska vacation that month), my dad isn't sure he can definitely travel with us (here's hoping), and the kids are still in school and sports routines. Well, we're unsure WHO will be watching our kids, but I'm sure God will provide a way for everything to work out. He has pushed the dates on this adoption so quickly lately and everything has fallen in line so perfectly, He must have a plan for us. If only 3 more roundtrip flights and the 2.5 week trip in China for kids were free. (No...LOL... that's not an option for us.)

Friday is our vaccination day. Fun fun! Dad already had his three shots, so as he said, "[he] better be going to China now." Apparently the one shot was painful, even after a day or so. Blech. :-( We're not sure what our clinic will recommend. Dad had Hep A, Polio and DPT.

Until we have more news...

Signed and Delivered

We signed the LOA (Letter of Approval) and mailed it back to our agency. They'll send it back to China, then we wait for our Travel Approval. We also sent off our passports. That's scary. We mailed them to the travel agency in NY to get our visas stamped in them. So, we're really doing this!

It's looking like my Dad could possibly travel. Our agency "guessed" that the travel time could be May 9-22. That's a GUESS (and inaccurate, actually, since we'll have to stay about 16 days, not 14.) If we do leave here on the 9th, my dad will come with us for a week, and then return to the states. If it's later than the 9th, I don't think he can come. But if it's earlier, all the better!

I took Tommy out today for a walk in our double jogging stroller (a consignment sale find). He loved it... and kept talking about how the other seat is for Grace. :-) He's excited to fill that seat, too.

WOW... LOA!

Well, we had been told by the agency to expect a wait time for our LOA (Letter of Approval) of approximately 2-4 months. Nope. 1 month, 5 days. We got it today! What does that mean? It means that China (CCAA) has now officially reviewed all of our documents from our dossier and has decided that Mike and I are fit for adopting Gracelynn. They gave us the go-ahead! Tomorrow we'll receive paperwork from the agency to fill out. Then in about 2 weeks, we're expected to get Travel Approval (TA). Wow! At that point, we'll work with the travel agency to determine dates of travel and visa application, etc. So, going by the standard timeframes.... 2 weeks till TA.... 6-8 weeks till takeoff after that. So... we're looking at MAY (maybe April or June). I told the kids today.... Grace should be home before school is out. They are really excited!

Of course this good news came with a little sadness and stress too.... one, wow, do we have to get ready with our travel preparations... and two, this trip could easily conflict with my Dad's current plans to travel to Alaska. We talked it over. He asked us not to play around with the dates... just go get our girl. (It would be sad if he cannot join us though... we were really planning on it. But maybe he can organize our trip back to China in another 8-10 years to take Grace back to visit her homeland?)

The agency said that 4 Special Needs families received their LOAs today and that we'll be traveling together. That's nice. I'm not sure where their children are (as in which Province), but we'd fly out together, spend time in Beijing together, and then we'll meet up again in Guangzhou later.)

Oh, on a separate note... we submitted paperwork last week to have our fingerprints retaken (since they will expire April 24) and to "motion" for a new I-171H since we thought that's what we were being told to do. Last Friday, we received the fingerprinting date... next Thursday morning. We also received the receipt in the mail for our "motion" ($$). Today I learned from our case worker that it wasn't necessary. Our current I-171H is just fine. That's great in that we won't have to wait for a new form... but that also means that our check was useless. I'll try sending a letter to request the money back, but I won't hold my breath.

Well, wish us luck. I'll post more as things progress. Soon, we'll be blogging from China.

Fire in China Orphanage

I just learned of a deadly fire in an orphanage in Huizhou City. Grace is in that city, but not that orphanage. Apparently a mosquito coil caught quilts on fire and 8 disabled children died in the fire from smoke inhalation, age 4 and up. When I first saw the post, I panicked! But it was another orphanage. Please pray for speedy paperwork so we can go and get our girl!

I apologize for a lack of posts lately, but our Internet connection is really awful these days. I'll be on for 5 minutes, then it's gone for half the day. The Comcast guy is coming tomorrow.

We are almost done with our paperwork. Looks as though we need to file a motion to redo our I-171H since we are now going with a special needs child. ($$$) We also need to get new fingerprints. We applied for both of those this week. Still waiting to hear back from the USCIS on both. We did, however, finish our homestudy update! YAY! I have it in our possession. It'll be used in China.

Tonight I go to a consignment sale. I'm dropping off a van-full of clothing and toys and doing my "volunteer work" for a few hours. Then, because of that, I get to shop early tomorrow! Wish me luck. I'm hoping to find a double stroller (either a nice Maclaren or such... or a jogging stroller).

Last weekend we "went to the dark side", as one of Mike's co-workers said. We bought a Mac. A Macbook Pro to be exact, so we now officially have a laptop ready to take to China! YAY! However, I'll never be able to look at it without feeling a dull pain in my gut. While we were at the Apple store (and Mike was checking out), I noticed that they had a special on printers. $100 rebate when you also bought the computer. So, we bought a $130 printer/fax/copy combo printer. Our other one was on it's last legs... springs were popping off all the time! For $30, I didn't care if it was the best one on the market... it was only $30. So after we carried the new computer (with a nice little box and handle, carried by one-handed Mike) and the new printer (huge, bulky, heavy, push-in handles blocked by poorly designed foam insert, carried by me!) across the long, long, long mall, we felt we made a good deal (despite my sore arms). It took a couple of days, but I finally got the printer hooked up and set the box aside to deal with the rebate. Somehow, both Mike and I forgot. One of us set it in the garage. I threw the box away with the trash yesterday morning. Yesterday evening, it dawned on me... I needed the UPC code. We now lost our $100. UGH!!! Who would've thought a box would be worth $100.

In any case, we are one step closer to China. Got the laptop and a new super-compact digital camera ready to go.